Seven years later, President Donald Trump is following his previous Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) playbook to a T.
Over the weekend, Trump named newly confirmed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Russell Vought as the acting CFPB director. The decision mirrors the one Trump took in 2018 when he named OMB Director Mick Mulvaney as acting CFPB director.
Vought immediately sought to shut down CFPB operations over the weekend. In a letter to staff, Vought said all work done by CFPB officials should stop pending his review. An internal email obtained by NPR on Monday said CFPB staff have been told they cannot perform any work tasks.
Vought closed the CFPB headquarters Monday. Workers were told to remain at home but not to perform work tasks. The CFPB website was not functioning as of Monday morning.
Later in the day, multiple reports led by The Washington Post said the CFPB would be shuttered for the week.
On Saturday, Vought said he would halt CFPB appropriations withdrawals from the Federal Reserve. He said the CFPB had $711.6 million in its account and the current balance was “excessive in the current fiscal environment.”
The union representing CFPB employees filed suit against Vought on Monday morning, saying his directive to staff to cease their supervision and enforcement work was unlawful.
Vought has not moved to shutter the agency. Such a move may or may not be possible.
The CFPB was created by Congress in the Dodd-Frank Act in 2010. However, the CFPB was created as an executive agency, which would put it under the purview of the president. A 2020 Supreme Court case said because the CFPB was an executive agency, the president had the power to fire its director at will. The legislation creating the CFPB had said the director only could be fired “for cause,” a much stricter standard to meet.
